International records / OpenAlex research

The Grouping of States

It is paradoxical that in recent decades the successful launching of new independent states has been matched by persistent efforts to create new groupings or associations of states for a variety of purposes. As political attitudes changed and opportunities presented themselves to national and other groups, wishful to escape from imperialist restraints and to govern themselves in their own ways, the world political map has come to assume an increasingly fragmented pattern. That political independence has been achieved often by peaceful negotiation rather than by military struggle is doubtless a…